I love vintage game themed plug n play systems, I really do! Even if I know they're homebrews, such as the DreamGear 50 in 1 I picked up the other day. But this one needed new AV cables installed, much like the Activision plug n play, but unlike that one the cables were complete, it was the tips that had been damaged!
Since I was already at the outlet store, where AV cables are plentiful, I decided to grab a few sets and check over them to see which would be the best to use for this repair. After sorting through a handful of them I decided on this digital camera AV set, they looked the most robust and therefore I figured they would be the best option. I pondered over doing an AV out mod, because there was a small Jazz DV camera in one of the bins, but I quickly decided that keeping this project to a minimum was going to be key.
Running merely on the assumption that this board would already be diagrammed and labeled for me, I pulled out everything and set to taking the system apart. Once apart I found out that it wasn't going to be as easy as I first though, although when I turned the board over I found it wasn't as complicated as I thought either. My soldering skills are nowhere near A1, but I can easily pass for a C average.
A simple desolder of the old wires, a quick setup for the new wires, some wire spinning and setting and resolder everything right back the way it is suppose to be. Again, I'm not a professional so it did take a little while to get everything to fit back together. After I get everything soldered in place and put back together I plugged it into my TV.
It works, and its packed with 50 homebrews, some of them are fun while others aren't, obviously. Anytime I have the chance to quickly fix something I'll gladly pay the 25-50 cents for it at the outlet store. Its building my soldering skills, my critical planning skills and I just find it fun to repair shit!
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